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US-Iranian Engagement: When and How?

Ahmad Sadri
March 25, 2009

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed thousands of
Iranians in the holy city of Mashhad on March 21, a day after President
Obama offered Tehran a 'new beginning' to turn back the tide on decades
of mutual animosity. Khamenei said the Islamic republic was ready to
change if Obama led the way by changing American attitudes toward his
country. (Photo: AFP / Getty Images)

On Nowruz, the day when Iranians celebrate the coming of spring and the new
Iranian calendar year, President Obama took the helm of American foreign policy
towards Iran and dramatically communicated his will to chart a new course
away from the failed policies of the past. "My administration is now
committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us,"
Obama said in a video message to Iranians.

But given the upcoming Iranian presidential elections in June, the real challenge
for the United States is when and how to further engage Iran. Obama understands
that there are vast areas of convergence between the United States and Iran
when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan, and many more areas where constructive
engagement could produce tangible results for both sides. Earlier this month
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the administration's plan to
invite Iran to a conference on Afghanistan. This meeting, scheduled for next
week, could be the launching point for shared action.

For instance, the United States and Iran could cooperate to prevent the trafficking
of drugs from Afghanistan into Iran, and from there to the rest of the world.
The international community would applaud such an undertaking, as it would
help to choke the bottleneck of the worldwide opium trade. Stopping drug runners
could also help address the immediate political concerns of Iran and the United
States by financially starving some of the groups within the Taliban that
benefit from such sales.

Bringing law and order to Iran's western frontier, where the Iranian army
and police are outgunned, outmanned and outwitted by increasingly aggressive
smugglers, would weaken or eliminate drug running outfits. Some of these local
operators are in alliance with Al Qaeda, which is waging a two-pronged terrorist
campaign against both the United States and Iran, as well as the Shi'a populations
of Pakistan and Iraq.

The announcement of American interest in the shipment of appropriate transportation,
reconnaissance and communications hardware to the areas of Iran bordering
Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the "war on drugs" is more than
a metaphor, would be enormously popular amongst Iranian civil society as well.

Successive bumper crops of opium and the virtually free flow of drugs into
Iran have dropped the price of heroin in Iran's western provinces lower than
that of cigarettes, unleashing an ugly and deeply disheartening epidemic of
heroin addiction among Iranians. Many Iranians, including me, have witnessed
the wasting away and death of young members of their families due to the scourge
of cheap and abundant drugs.

One would be hard pressed to imagine a more auspicious opening in Iranian-American
relations than scenes of cooperation between the experts of both countries
to address a concern common.

But before shared action can occur, diplomatic relations must be reinstated.
There is no doubt that a great gesture would speak louder than mere promises
of a grand bargain. Any diplomatic approach must be combined with some sort
of concrete action. After three decades of missed opportunities, Iranians
of all political walks are distrustful of furtive missives delivered by cloaked
emissaries.

Besides, there is always the vexing question of choosing the right interlocutor
for negotiations.

Following Obama's video message, extending a hand directly to the powerful
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would appear to circumvent the democratically
elected parliament and president. And approaching the hardliner President
Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would compound this risk by opening negotiations with
a less powerful leader who could be in the lame duck twilight of his presidency.
Such an early move could also strengthen his bid for another term.

Nor can Obama afford to wait for the results of the June elections because
it might radically diminish the goodwill necessary for negotiations in case
of a conservative win.

The best option is to dispatch the message with an American congressional
delegation in an attempt at a dialogue between elective bodies.

Regardless of to whom he might convey his words, Obama's goodwill must be
readily translatable to dramatic deeds with immediate benefits to both Iran
and the United States. Only then can Obama effectively push at the 30-year-old
logjam of distrust between the two countries.

Ahmad Sadri is the Iranian-born James P. Gorter chair of Islamic world
studies at Lake Forest College and a columnist for the Iranian newspaper,
Etemade Melli.